What kept me watching were the note-perfect performances, with the under-rated Sean Harris... superb as twitchy loner Stephen, aka The Commander, and Rory Kinnear deliciously repellent as ambitious and cynical newshound David, wrapping his lips around the line ‘thank you, you beautiful immigrant woman, with your real tears and your real pain’ as he celebrated a scoop.

...One of the bravest and most important dramas in the channel's history.

Episode Two - Lights Falls

The deceits, the longings and desires of the people of Southcliffe are revealed in the days leading up to the shooting. Betrayal comes casually to Paul (Anatol Yusef) who barely hides his affair with a much younger woman despite having a newborn baby with his loyal wife. Caring comes naturally to Claire (Shirley Henderson) but her efforts at work are becoming exhausted by pressures at home. She and her husband, Andrew (Eddie Marsan), are worried about the void that will be left behind when their only child, Anna (Kaya Scodelario), leaves home to go abroad. For all of these people life turns in a second. Each is forced through their loss to come to terms with how easily they took their loved ones for granted. But the reality of grief has not yet fully descended on them.

Reporter David (Rory Kinnear) is haunted by childhood memories of his hometown and is reluctant to return to Southcliffe. His own experience growing up there gives him a version of events which is dangerously subjective. It becomes clear he knew the killer, Morton (Sean Harris) many years ago. Feelings of guilt and responsibility provoke a deep-rooted resentment in David towards the grieving community.

For more information, stills and interviews with the cast and creative team, visit the Channel 4 website.